In his so-called state-of-the-nation speech, which he held for the 14th time, Gyurcsány insisted that “an honest opposition party would not make a deal with [Viktor] Orbán” or the prime minister’s ruling Fidesz party.

Gyurcsány said his party had never made any dishonest compromises with “Orbán’s vile regime”, while the LMP party had “pretended” for years that “there is a position between democracy and dictatorship” and at times “gave a helping hand to Fidesz when needed”.

He also criticised the Socialist Party for “receiving financing” for its media from Fidesz. Gyurcsány insisted that the government “is at war with Paris, Brussels, Rome, while they are delivering the country on plate to Putin’s Russia and siding with Turkey and Azerbaijan”.

Gyurcsány lambasted the government for “talking more about George Soros” than about poverty, and though he said he would not “champion” the US billionaire, he added that “what we are facing is goddamn manipulation and terrible lies”. He also said the government had “secretly accommodated thousands of migrants” and insisted that “those people did not snatch the jobs of locals; they did not increase crime or worsen public security; neither have they converted the country to Islam.”

“Still, the people in government are reluctant to admit they have lied day and night,” he added. Gyurcsány criticised the relationship between the government and religious organisations, saying that “people who exploit the power of faith to the benefit of political parties cheat God rather than serve Him”.

If DK wins power in the April 8 election, it would reduce financing for church-run schools, which he insisted was currently three times as high as other school funding. Gyurcsány added that tax benefits for the “political churches” would be scrapped. Fidesz said in response that “the Left would carry on where it left off” in 2010 and “turn Hungary into a destination for migrants in seconds”.

Fidesz’s communications chief Balázs Hidvéghi told MTI that “the same politicians that once before ruined the country” were again making preparations to take over.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI pőhoto: Mohai Balázs